SOURCE: "Arms/Words/Tears: Language and the Body in Titus Andronicus," in ELH, Vol. 50, No. 2, Summer, 1983, pp. 261-77.

In the following essay, Fawcett discusses the relationship between language and the body, especially a violated or mutilated body, in Titus Andronicus.

Let us imagine that the people in that country carried on the usual human activities and in the course of them employed, apparently, an articulate language. If we watch their behavior we find it intelligible, it seems 'logical'. But when we try to learn their language we find it impossible to do so. For there is no regular connexion between what they say, the sounds they make, and their actions; but still these sounds are not superfluous, for if we gag one of the people, it has the same consequences as with us; without the sounds their actions fall into confusion—as I feel like putting it.

Are...